Mama's boy, preacher's son
Subtitle: a memoir
By: Kevin Jennings
Publisher: Beacon Press
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 267
ISBN-13: 9780807071465
Subjects: Gay teachers; Gay men; Gay students; Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network; Biography; History
Description: Growing up poor in the South, Kevin Jennings learned a lot of things, especially about how to be a real man. When his father, a fundamentalist preacher, dropped dead at his son"s eighth birthday party, Kevin already knew he wasn"t supposed to cry. He also knew there was no salvation for homosexuals, who weren"t "real men"--Or Christians, for that matter. But Jennings found his salvation in school, inspired by his mother. Self-taught, from Appalachia, her formal education had ended in sixth grade, but she was determined that her son would be the first member of their extended family to go to college, even if it meant going North. Kevin, propelled by her dream, found a world beyond poverty. He earned a scholarship to Harvard and there learned not only about history and literature, but also that it was possible to live openly as a gay man. But when Jennings discovered his vocation as a teacher and returned to high school to teach, he was forced back into the closet. He saw countless teachers and students struggling with their sexual orientation and desperately trying to hide their identity. For Jennings, coming out the second time was more complicated and much more important than the first--because this time he was leading a movement for justice. This book is a memoir that is both a riveting personal story and an inside account of a critical chapter in our recent history. Creating safe schools for teenagers is now a central part of the progressive agenda in American education.
Table of contents: title: Deathbeds are waiting --; title: Happy birthday to me --; title: The road to salvation, part one --; title: The road to salvation, part two --; title: Tests of allegiance --; title: Getting out --; title: Harvard boy --; title: Going back in --; title: Out for good --; title: Getting organized --; title: Making history --; title: Going national --; title: Going home --; title: Alpha and omega.